Wireless security and control systems have been included as features in many products. For example, automobiles and homes often have security systems which allow a user to control an aspect of the security system with a wireless transmitter. The user, for example, employs a wireless transmitter to activate or to deactivate a security and control system to unlock doors, to activate an audible alarm, or to activate a remote vehicle starter, just to name a few. These wireless transmitters may be in the form of a key FOB. The wireless transmitter may include, for example, a radio transmitter, an encoder and a battery disposed in a housing that the user attaches to a key chain. The user operates the wireless transmitter to transmit coded signals to the security and control system which activates or deactivates preprogrammed features of the system.
Systems which employ the above described wireless transmitter have gained broad acceptance and it is not uncommon for a user to have multiple wireless transmitters to activate or to control many different systems. For example, users may use a wireless transmitter to control a security system in each car they own and use another wireless transmitter to control a security system installed in their homes. As can be appreciated, it is inconvenient and often burdensome for users to carry multiple wireless transmitters to control the many security and control systems they use.
In view of the undesired necessity of multiple transmitters to control multiple systems, it would be desirable to provide a universal, wireless controller which would allow a single device to emulate the transmissions of multiple wireless transmitters and, thus, overcome the disadvantages described above.